Tuesday election will impact nationwide

DENVER — A select few residents in Colorado Springs and Pueblo will vote for the entire state and even the nation on recall elections that have become national referendums on gun rights.

“This is no longer about Colorado Springs,” says Bob Loevy a retired political science professor from Colorado College. “Only 3 percent of Colorado’s population is voting, but this is going to have statewide and national significance.”

The president of the Colorado Senate – John Morse, D-Colorado Springs — will face a recall election on Tuesday where voters in Senate District 11 will decide whether to keep him in office. In Pueblo, Senate District 3 voters will have the same decision to make for Democrat Sen. Angela Giron.

Morse and Giron were targeted for ouster by a group opposed to the gun-control legislation passed last session.

In Senate District 11 there are 69,481 registered voters and more could register in coming days. Loevy compares the recall to Iowa or New Hampshire during a presidential primary, where a small number of voters make a decision for the entire nation.

During primaries those relatively small states are inundated with national money, as has occurred in Colorado Springs and Pueblo over the past few months as the cities have been canvassed with door knockers, robocalls, mailers and radio and TV advertisements.

Loevy, who lives in the heart of Senate District 11 said it’s been unlike any other legislative race he’s seen.

“There are rarely, if ever, TV ads in a state Senate campaign,” he said. “Let alone the flooding of the TV that we have with this recall.”

Fueling the media frenzy are donors from coast to coast.

Opponents of the recalls have raised almost $3.1 million since the campaigning began through a variety of committees registered with the Colorado Secretary of State’s office.

Proponents of the recall — those hoping to oust Morse and Giron — have only reported $266,231.

But those numbers can be deceiving.

Two of the largest recall supporters — Americans for Prosperity and I Am Created Equal — have established nonprofit organizations through which donations and expenditures are made without any public disclosure. Those nonprofits, registered as “social welfare” groups or 501(c)4s — don’t have to disclose anything until they file their federal tax returns sometime within the next three years.